Under the Weather

 We've had a deluge almost daily for about a week, thankfully, and during yesterday's thunder and lightening we lost a huge limb. Thankfully, again, it hit nothing and fell in just the right spot in the empty-ish back yard. Hurray!!! I haven't yet found which tree it came from. I guess now we'll have to agree with Nick that we need a fire pit, as there are many more branches littering the yard beside this big guy.

 The rain has been heaven sent for the gardens and I am so thrilled at the growth and blooming. 

The zinnias that I planted from seed are opening and full of buds, and even doing well in the semi-shade. But alas, all is not well with the one of the clematis. It is a goner I am afraid, but I have another waiting in a pot to take over that spot. This dying business has happened to several plants, right next to ones that are growing just fine. I have no idea what is going on.

The peppers are doing GREAT and are all bearing fruit. They are in the hottest bed with sun that reaches them first.

 The other end of the pepper bed are sweet potatoes and just sprouting beets with four o'clock flowers filling in where the potatoes were supposed to be growing. Nothing happened with those tubers, but I imagine the sweet potatoes will fill in the empty spot. I am putting beets all over the garden, and seeing where they do best. Love fresh beets.

 And no surprise, the zucchini, yellow squash and cucumbers are already gigantic.

 The tomatoes are also doing great, not getting out of hand and fruiting nicely. One died (???) so I got two more to replace that one, a Solar Fire and this tiny cherry variety which was miss-labeled, so I am guessing it is Tiny Tim. It is loaded with little berry sized tomatoes.

 The next bed has been a bit of a struggle getting started. Green bean seeds just didn't want to sprout, or were stolen by chipmunks. So I presprouted a second batch indoors and got them in the ground with a full root started. They came up almost overnight. And then the others did too. So I have various stages of green beans in this bed, along with red kuri squash and watermelon vines.

 The last bed has cantaloupe, pumpkins, and butternut squash and was to have potatoes, but only one sprouted. Dang. I had a baking potato in the house sprout an eye, so I am chitting it and will get it in the dirt this week. All that space with nothing growing in it. Grrr.

 One cool morning last week we decided to fence in the front yard, for the sake of the dogs, who have no grass to play in. During the winter I ordered this arbor and it has a gate, so that is the start of the fence idea, which to save our marriage we will have Nick install.

I am most happy with these Cheyenne Spirit coneflowers. They just keep on blooming and are orange, red, and yellow turning to cream. I already have pink and white in the garden and next season I will transplant them together for a fabu display.
The first year of a garden is pretty much an experiment, learning what works where. Next year I will have an earlier start and I imagine that some veggies will be put in the patio garden and some flowers in the veggie beds where the shade is now more obvious. A cut flower bed might happen. I am so impressed with the zinnia variety I planted, a cut and come again mix, with several branching stems on each plant. Imagine a big bed of those!